Hurricane Isaac
NFIP flood claims
- Median paid claims of the storm run from $3,915 in Florida to $27,194 in Louisiana.
- Louisiana holds 80.0% of the storm’s paid claims and Mississippi 13.8%; 4 states are listed.
- By paid claims (11,777), Hurricane Isaac is the 13th highest of 42 named storms covered here, and the 20th highest of 42 by median paid claim in 2024 dollars.
- The storm’s paid claims are spread over many counties: the first, St. John the Baptist Parish, LA, holds 26.5% of them, ahead of St. Tammany Parish, LA and Jefferson Parish, LA.
Source: FEMA, OpenFEMA NfipClaims (v3, data as of 2026-09-09, retrieved 2026-10-12); CPI-U, U.S. city average, all items (CUUR0000SA0), annual average (BLS Public Data API v1, annual averages 2005-2025, retrieved 2026-10-12). Not an official federal report.
Landfall and storm report
The National Hurricane Center’s HURDAT2 best track of Hurricane Isaac (AL092012, retrieved 2026-10-12) records 4 landfalls, 2 of them in or near a US county. The strongest of those came on 2012-08-29 at 00:00 UTC, as a category 1 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 70 kt: HURDAT2 position 28.9N 89.4W, rounded to 0.1°; county containing or nearest it: Plaquemines Parish, LA.
| Date | Time (UTC) | Position | Strength | Wind (kt) | Pressure (mb) | County containing or nearest the position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012-08-25 | 06:00 | 18.3N 72.7W | tropical storm | 55 | 991 | no US county |
| 2012-08-25 | 15:00 | 20.1N 74.5W | tropical storm | 50 | 997 | no US county |
| 2012-08-29 | 00:00 | 28.9N 89.4W | category 1 hurricane | 70 | 967 | Plaquemines Parish, LA (3.7 km) |
| 2012-08-29 | 08:00 | 29.2N 90.2W | category 1 hurricane | 70 | 966 | Lafourche Parish, LA |
National Hurricane Center report
From the NHC Tropical Cyclone Report on Hurricane Isaac (retrieved 2026-10-12):
“Isaac was a tropical cyclone that spent most of its life as a tropical storm but became a category 1 hurricane (on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale) a few hours before making landfall in southeastern Louisiana.”
“The cyclone produced heavy rainfall and inland flooding across portions of the Caribbean as it moved through the Lesser Antilles, and it made landfalls along the southwestern peninsula of Haiti and extreme eastern Cuba.”
NFIP paid building claims in Hurricane Isaac
NFIP claims: amounts paid, not repair cost. Window: event: Hurricane Isaac, year of loss 2012; 11,777 paid claims; median $19,577, half of them between $4,371 (Q1) and $52,590 (Q3), in nominal dollars. Median in 2024 dollars (CPI-U): $26,747, a monetary adjustment, not today’s cost of repair.
Paid claims by year of loss
| Year of loss | Paid claims |
|---|---|
| 2012 | 11,777 |
Paid claims by state
| State | Paid claims | Median paid |
|---|---|---|
| Louisiana | 9,425 | $27,194 |
| Mississippi | 1,628 | $9,022 |
| Florida | 577 | $3,915 |
| Alabama | 147 | $5,184 |
Counties with the most paid claims
| County | FIPS | Paid claims |
|---|---|---|
| St. John the Baptist Parish | 22095 | 3,120 |
| St. Tammany Parish | 22103 | 2,210 |
| Jefferson Parish | 22051 | 1,317 |
| Orleans Parish | 22071 | 643 |
| Jackson County | 28059 | 637 |
| Plaquemines Parish | 22075 | 625 |
| Livingston Parish | 22063 | 611 |
| Hancock County | 28045 | 502 |
| Broward County | 12011 | 321 |
| Harrison County | 28047 | 277 |
Questions about Hurricane Isaac flood claims
How many flood insurance claims were paid after Hurricane Isaac?
11,777 NFIP building claims carrying FEMA’s Hurricane Isaac event label were paid (event: Hurricane Isaac, year of loss 2012), with a median of $19,577; half of them fall between $4,371 and $52,590. These are amounts paid, not repair cost.
Which counties had the most Hurricane Isaac flood claims?
St. John the Baptist Parish, LA (3,120), St. Tammany Parish, LA (2,210) and Jefferson Parish, LA (1,317), across 4 states listed.
What is the median Hurricane Isaac flood claim in 2024 dollars?
$26,747 once each claim is adjusted with the CPI-U, against $19,577 in nominal dollars: a monetary adjustment, not today’s cost of repair.
Related tools
Paid claims of Hurricane Isaac are not repair estimates: to estimate the cleanup of a flooded basement from published cost-guide rates, use the basement water damage repair cost calculator; for water removal and drying after any water loss, the water damage and mitigation calculator.
To set these figures against every State on one claims window, amounts paid, not repair cost: NFIP paid building claims by state.
Before using these figures
A storm total counts NFIP-insured buildings with a paid claim, not all the damage of the storm. Method and limits.
Source and notice
- Storm = floodEvent "Hurricane Isaac" with yearOfLoss 2012; window of the extraction: yearOfLoss 2005-2025.
This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).